


End It

by Merfilly



Series: Jedi Asajj [11]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 07:57:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8393473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Tahl begins putting pieces in place, even before she knows just how Asajj is handling recent events. Because, sometimes, being an archivist means learning from history. This isn't the first shadow war after all.





	

Obi-Wan and Anakin took the high-security comm together, having been in process of working through a tactical meeting on how to best support the 327th on Felucia.

Tahl's solemn face materialized in the holo, and both Master and Knight felt a foreboding sense.

"I know you are quite some distance from Coruscant, but I am comming to request a security detail from one or both of you. A small detachment of snipers, commandos, and sentries."

"Why not appeal to the Guard, Master?" Obi-Wan asked her, frowning. 

The sightless eyes fixed on him in that way she had of being completely unnerving, even without the usual clues to guide her face. "They are on Coruscant?" she said, note rising, leading him to think it through better. "I would have appealed to Ky or Qui-Gon, but they are even more remote than you, and currently in hyperspace."

Anakin growled softly as his brain caught up. "Are they okay?" There were only two people that could affect all four of them if it was Tahl asking. After all, if something had happened to Bant, it would have been Asajj making the call, while someone tried to keep Tahl sane.

Tahl did not answer him, her solemnity deepening. "I need men who are good at stealth. They will be on guard duty, and need to arrive as discreetly as possible, reporting to me directly.

"You will have them, Master Tahl. A squad of eight?"

"That will hopefully be enough."

+++

Tahl was thankful she had been in residence; she rarely left Coruscant, but with how deep a blow this had struck, it would have been part of their luck if she had been away. The elder woman made her way into the Council chamber, to see Saesee Tiin was the only Master of the Council in residence.

"Is there an update?"

Tahl shook her head, managing to keep her serenity in place only by long habit. "It is advisable, with a potential Jedi assassin on the loose, to release an official statement," she told him. "I have a security force on the way, borrowed from off-world."

The master tactician considered both points, then nodded. "You are, as ever, wise in the ways of guarding us all, Master Tahl. I will issue a statement condemning the attack, and requesting witnesses come forward. I leave security details in your hands."

She inclined her head, and left him to his part. She had arrangements to make until the security detail arrived, ones that would keep her busy enough to give Asajj more time to handle herself and her reactions.

+++

Tahl arrived at nearly the same time as Luminara. The older woman reached out, and had Luminara take her hand gently in reassurance. 

"Is Barriss well?" Tahl asked first, and she felt Luminara's frustration.

"I do not know for certain, Master Tahl. She seems withdrawn at the moment. But she answers my questions and has returned to her duties, as she was barred from the surgical area."

That elicited a frown from the elder woman. "Be gentle with her, my friend. She may not understand how to cope with the questions this may have aroused, given that she might not understand either the depth of affection between Asajj and Ahsoka… or she is trying to reconcile her own feelings and the Code."

Luminara drew in a deep breath, then squeezed Tahl's hand lightly. "Of course."

"I am uncertain which of us might be more of assistance to Asajj currently," Tahl admitted. "You have been her friend, whereas I have been a mentor and teacher. Your thoughts?"

"Honestly, Master, I am just as uncertain, and feel that the only two people she truly would wish to see are both far from here."

"Then we both will go back to her."

+++

Asajj was aware of the two women joining her, but her eyes were fixated on the tank ahead of her. That the wounds had required surgery, above and beyond what she could manage with her gifts had been frightening enough. But to see the child floating with so little color in the lekku, the mask obscuring much of the white marks on both cheeks, and to know the light had all but guttered out so many times… all of that had Asajj near to breaking from her promise to stay away from her Dark heritage.

There were deeper, harsher Dathomiri magics, as her people called them, that could restore Ahsoka more fully, alleviate the chances of permanent damage. While she had been a very young child when she was sold to the slavers, the knowledge pulsed in something that might be considered ancestral memory.

"Asajj?"

Luminara. One of her first friends, as alien as the concept had been. She'd actually been easier to accept in that role than Obi-Wan, being less threatening, less emotionally taxing for her, with the calm, measured repose Luminara used on every person she encountered.

"Dear one."

Tahl. First person Asajj had ever healed among the Jedi, and Tahl had never forgotten the mercy that had been for all of their assorted little family of Force users. She had been there for the questions about being a free woman, in command of her body and what did or did not work. Tahl, who Ky Narec loved, who Qui-Gon loved, was reaching out to actually touch her. Asajj very nearly flinched and snarled, but the fingers came to rest on the sleeve of the robe a healer had loaned her, as her own had been soaked in Togruta blood.

It was a small reminder, that this family she had found respected her boundaries. That made it clearer to her fear-soaked mind that she was not alone, and that Ahsoka would have that same support to heal and find her new boundaries, if there were lasting damages. Just as Tahl had overcome the blindness and the weakening caused by her near-fatal poisoning, Ahsoka would thrive.

She turned to look at them, not the child she had wrapped her legacy around. Her eyes were still ice-blue, not shading toward amber or gold like the Sith they faced in this shadow war.

"Ahsoka saw or heard the Sith. I could feel the shock in her, before she was stabbed by the assailant. And if she knows, we can end this. We can end it all," she said, having sorted through all the impressions in the bond, working past the pain, because she wanted vengeance. Yet, looking at them, she realized that in this case, justice and retribution were the order of the day, not her petty need to hurt the man that attacked her padawan. 

Tahl smiled, an expression that was as cold as Asajj's eyes, and Luminara straightened up. "I've sent for a security detail from off-world for her, on a hunch," the archivist said. "And encouraged Saesee Tiin to make an official statement. I think these things may well help us with the plan you are building?"

"Yes, yes they will. Because the Sith will try to kill her again, to silence her, once they know she lives."

"And we," Luminara said, "will be waiting."


End file.
